Strabeko B.V. Tilburg

Strabeko b.v. Tilburg is a metal coating company established in Tilburg, The Netherlands, in 1964. Their capabilities include powder coating, abrasive blasting, coatings for corrosion control and others.

Their powder coating department uses overhead tracks and trolleys to suspend products weighing up to 10,000 kg (22,250 lbs). The items are moved manually in and out of a 200° C (390° F) curing oven. The Sogelub® Stabigrease they were using could not stand up to the heat and was bleeding out of the bearings. Removal and greasing of the trolley assemblies was labor intensive and they were still losing 100 bearings per year. Poor lubrication also made it very difficult to push products along the tracks. Besides the costs for expensive greases, wages and production outburst, bearings were replaced on average yearly.

SWEPCO Field Service Representative Frank Kleijn recommended a switch to an automatic oil system using SWEPCO 722 HiTemp Chain & Roller Lubricant due to its excellent high temperature performance (up to 293° C) and superior adhesion to metal surfaces. It won’t drip.
By placing an automatic lubrication system, one no longer needs to get the traverse from the rail to lubricate and one does not have highs and lows anymore, regarding the presence or absence of lubrication. This relieves the work for the employees significantly. Traverses rolling standard with the same flexibility and the rail and bearings are continuously lubricated with a minimal amount of oil, which extends service life.

Since the switch to SWEPCO 722, the following results have been reported:

• no bearing lost since switching in 2009
• trolleys no longer have to be removed for greasing or bearing replacement, eliminating 12 to 18 man days of labor and downtime per year
• annual lubricant cost has been reduced 89%, a savings of more than €1.340
• bearing replacement cost has been eliminated, an annual savings of €3.125
• as a result of the successes with SWEPCO 722, Strabeko now also uses SWEPCO 121 Tri-Plex Universal Grease and SWEPCO 708 Industrial/Turbine Oil.

“When the proposition was made to lubricate with oil our largest concern was
drizzling. In association with AMBI a system has been moored what makes both the maintenance costs considerably lower and the work for our staff much lighter.” – Mr. Van den Dries, Manager-Owner

Strabeko b.v. Tilburg has been using SWEPCO lubricants since 2007 .